#151 We Need More Red

by Merry Monteleone

“We need more red.”

Laney looked up at their masterpiece on the living room wall and thought her friend, Hannah, was probably right. There was green and blue and marigold yellow smeared across the cookie sheets and glopped up on the carpet, but no red.

“What about food dye? I think we have some of that.”

Laney jumped up and sneak walked her way into the kitchen, padding mucky rainbow footprints through the house from the bottom of her sock. She dug through the bottom cabinet, wiggling her fingers past the half empty box of stale crackers and toppling a bag of flour before emerging with the dilapidated box of miniscule jars of color.

Hannah’s eyes widened; that scared look she got when she knew they would get in trouble.

“She won’t get mad.” Laney said, and trooped back toward the living room—away from the snoring in the back bedroom.

Laney emptied the contents of each jar into a pie tin on the floor and laughed at the glee-filled look that crossed Hannah’s face when she finally submerged her pink little hands.

Hannah’s mom would never sleep all day and forget to make dinner. But then again, she’d also never let her paint on the living room walls.